Review: MSI GF65 9SEXR-250 15.6″ Gaming Laptop
The MSI GF65 Thin 9SEXR-250, or GF65250 for short, is primarily a gaming laptop, and then it is more.
This is the laptop for those who want to enjoy the beaming lights and booming sounds of the typical gaming rig, as well as the productivity that comes with powerful processor performance.
The 9th-gen Intel Core i7-9750H is the major highlight, as is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, and there is a healthy choice of connections with the speed and range that will keep you on the go.
The 15.6″ Full HD display is satisfactory, with a refresh rate of 120Hz keeping your display from veering off track.
The short of the matter is that you get a brilliant gaming laptop with good specs at a great price, although your battery will pay the price for all of this power.
MSI GF65 – Complete Review: Design and Appearance
The signature matte black finish is the framework design staple of an overwhelming majority of MSI laptops, the MSI GF65 is no exception. Delicate strokes of aluminum finish are featured on the lid and the keyboard deck to add posh to what is otherwise a bland plastic chassis look. The general appearance of this laptop is set against a backdrop of red color, featuring prominently on the keyboard backlight and the MSI logo engraved in the lid.
With a weight of 4.1kg and a thickness of 0.85″, this laptop is as close to portability as any other laptop with a similar form factor.
Ports and Connections
On the port side of things, the Thunderbolt 3 and an SD card reader are among the most high-profile omissions. You can make do with two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, and an HDMI port. There is further provision for the Ethernet port and a headphone jack.
The connection options are much better, the Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 5 comes with enhanced speed and a greater range of coverage.
Keyboard and Clickpad
The Keyboard gets top marks for its sizable and well-spaced keys, adequate key travel distance, and tactile feedback. Red color backlighting takes center stage In the absence of RGB color support for the keyboard. The absence of numeric pads will divide opinions and the arrow keys could do with some more spacing, but most users(especially gamers)will agree that this is a satisfactory keyboard.
The touchpad is decent, the red backlight helps to define the edges in poorly lit rooms. Click pressure is consistent across the entirety of its generous footprint, and the feedback is fine.
Display
Whether you’re streaming videos on YouTube, or blowing hot on Battlefield v, this laptops’ amazing Full HD IPS display has enough to keep you glued to your screen. Multiplayer gaming will benefit from the wide viewing angles and better color consistency of this laptops’ IPS panel. And the Full HD feature, with its native resolution of 1920×1080p and refresh rate of 120Hz will guarantee a sharp and vibrant display in real-time. There is reduced lagging and screen stuttering which is the bane of online gaming.
And with the bezels thinning down, there is enough screen real-estate for users to enjoy.
Audio
This laptop Is well-stocked in the audio quality department as the stereo speakers are equipped with Hi-Res audio support for up to 192 kHz / 24-bit sample rate. You’ll get audio that is rich and deep for good measure. And if that is not enough, this laptop gets extra support in the way of “Nahimic 3“, MSIs’ pre-installed audio software that takes things a notch higher. This program offers flexibility with your devices’ peripherals while creating a ton of customization options that make the gaming experience music to the ears.
Graphics
Equipped with 6GB of VRAM, the Nvidia GeForce 2060 has enough processor firepower in its arsenal to take on some of the latest AAA games. While this GPU might be knocked off the medium-end perch with time, it puts up decent frame rate numbers at 1080p. And with the ray tracing feature to boot, the gaming experience on the MSI GS65 is turbo-boosted to dizzying heights. This graphic card is tailor-made for gaming on this laptop, graphic designers and content creators will find considerable joy in it too.
Battery
As expected, the battery life of this laptop leaves much to be desired. A full charge will give you between 4 to 5 hours of runtime before battery depletion, that is an underwhelming statistic. You’re going to want your laptop plugged in to a power socket whenever you reach for the game controllers.
A simple two-hour web browsing test will reveal the obvious, the MSI GD65 is underpowered. With the battery power cut by half its charge at the time of testing, this laptops’ battery seems to have gotten the shorter end of the stick.
Cooling
The MSI GF65 is well fitted with an efficient cooling system. For a laptop of its power and functionality, any other lesser thing would be disturbing, and that’s me being generous with words. To drive away the heat from the laptops’ interior, MSI deploys a massive six heat pipes and two fans. In the trenches of laptop cooling tech, that is quite the army. This means that most GPU/CPU-intensive games and applications can be run for an extended period without your keyboard going into heat-induced overdrive.
The downside to this is that the whirring of the fans constitutes a disquiet of sorts. It is tolerable, but if it gets too loud during gaming you can drown the racket by unleashing your speakers.
Gaming
The MSI GF65 is promoted as a gaming laptop by its makers, and this is not a claim that they bandy around.
This laptop is capable of playing the most demanding AAA games at decent frame rates without any glitches and time lags, even with the graphical performance settings at maximum. With a score of 5834 on the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark, this laptop hits the above-average mark on the 3DMark database(5730).
And with the Ray tracing and VR gaming support, the MSI GF65 Thin takes on high-end games Like the Witcher 3 at stable fps rates and in high definition. With older or less demanding titles like Doom Eternal and Fortnite, it is a stroll in the park for the processors.
Performance
Regardless of the configuration, the MSI GF65 thin is equipped with processors that can hold their own when subjected to processor-intensive pressure, as is expected of a gaming laptop.
The 9th-gen Intel Core i7-9750H is particularly suited for this job, backed by six cores, 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of SSD storage; there is enough gas in the tank. And with a maximum velocity of 4.9GHz, this processor can handle heavy multitasking, simultaneously running with VR gaming. More importantly, this clock rate can be sustained for long periods of time, this is good news for professionals involved in multimedia content editing and programming.
Final verdict
The MSI Laptop, the GF65 is not great in the aesthetic department, but from a performance perspective, it is simply irresistible.
And when you factor in the affordable pricing, it becomes even more impressive. A couple of compromises have been made in the form of RAM, storage, and battery power, but you can only get so much in a gaming laptop. Despite that, this laptop remains a great gaming rig, among other things.
Device specifications
Processor
Intel 9th Gen Core i7-9750H (2.6 GHz)
RAM
8 GB
Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
Storage
512 GB
Display
15.6 inches
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Battery Life
7 hours
Weight
4.10 lbs